MR MUNRO’S INDISCRETION.

Evening Star, Issue 22194, 23 November 1935, Page 16

MR MUNRO’S INDISCRETION.

Dn McMillan evidently is not convinced that remarks attributed to Mr Munro at his Woodhaugh meeting on Thursday night will be helpful to the Labour cause. Up till yesterday the election campaign had proceeded on lines devoid of sensation. The remarks of the Labour candidates were listened to with rapt attention., Their opponents have not been so well treated. The Prime Minister, particularly, was entitled to a more courteous hearing, but so far as the' local Nationalist speakers are concerned the interruptions for the most part have been goodnatured. It has been left to Mr Munro to impart fireworks into the campaign. This was unexpected because the candidate for Dunedin North has never been an advocate of extreme measures. He has been regarded as a proponent of the Labour programme by means of the ballot box. It must be confessed, however, that at his Woodhaugh meeting his zeal outran his discretion, and it is hard to believe that Kis remarks bear the sinister interpretation that they might suggest. He is reported to have said, amongst other things: “It we can’t carry out our policy we’ll go to the electors and get, a mandate to do it. And if we can’t do it then, the only way to do it will be to get out and smash things.” To put it as mildly as possible, Mr .Munro was exceedingly unwise to njake such a statement. He has always been a supporter of democratic principles, and to sow the seeds of distrust in this way is anything but a help to the cause of orderly government in the Dominion. He has no right to suggest that in the event of a Labour victory opposition interests, in order to thwart the Labour policy, might employ methods that would be directly against the interests of the people. Mr Munro has not helped his candidature by his outburst, nor has he advanced the cause of his party. He is out of town at the moment, so that we shall have to wait for any explanation that he is prepared to give. Dr MMillan has already repudiated Mr Munro’s sentiments. With reference to the latter’s remark that “somebody might be put in gaol who least expects it to-day,” the candidate for Dunedin West points out that if State servants do not obey instructions they are asked for their resignations, and if they refuse they are given a month’s notice. One thing is clear, and that is that the people of New Zealand will overwhelmingly reject anything that even hints at the use of physical force in our- domestic affairs. It has been complained in the past that Mr Munro in his political life was lacking in “ ginger.” The ginger he has now, introduced is of a kind that will not be appreciated.